Value of FNC’s Holding in Champion Fermont - $29M (Present) $115M (Upon Sale)
posted on
Jul 10, 2011 02:42AM
Resource projects cover more than 1,713 km2 in three provinces at various stages, including the following: hematite magnetite iron formations, titaniferous magnetite & hematite, nickel/copper/PGM, chromite, Volcanogenic Massive and gold.
FNC has three main properties:
1) Magpie (46.7%)
2) Lac Lamelee (100%)
3) Champion’s Fermont (17.5%)
I heard a good comment on Beauce drillings, but we have to open up assay results first.
This is what I see the value of FNC’s interest in Fermont properties:
The Present Value
84,261,792 Shares x $1.72 (closing price as of July 8th) = $144,932,000 (current market cap)
$144,932,200 - $10 mil (Value of Attikamagen & Powderhorn/Gullbridge Properties) = $134 mil
$134 mil x 0.175 (17.5% Interest) =$23.45 mil
$23.45 mil + $4.5 mil (1.5% Royalty) + $1.72 mil (1 mil shares) = ~ $29.67 mil
Note: Sheridan and Fancamp also retain a 3-per-cent royalty, which may be reduced to 2 per cent by paying $3-million.
Pursuant to the March 25, 2010 amendment the dates for remaining payments by Labec in the Attikamagen Agreement, it was optioned to Labec to earn up to a 60% interest by increased exploration expenditure to $13,000,000.Champion is currently in the third year of the three year option to earn a 70% interest in the Powderhorn Property and has been granted an option to earn up to an 85% interest in the adjacent Gullbridge Base Metals Property (No value was counted in as no exploration expenditures have yet been taken place.)
Champion has issued 4 mil shares from treasury and paid $1-million to acquire 17.5% interest from Sheridan in mid of July 2010 to make it Champion's recorded and registered interest in the properties to 82.5 per cent. This transaction occurred before Champion has made tremendous success on drilling in Fermont properties since. As a result, Sheridan has less $18 mil compared to what we have today. This was a big mistake by Sheridan!! Peter did a good job by holding FNC’s interest in Fermont properties (not give away).
The Value of Fermont Properties Upon Sale
3.5 – 4 Billion Tonnes x $150 mil = $525 - $600 mil
$525 - $600 mil x 0.175 (17.5% Interest) = $91.875 - $105 mil plus Royalty & 1 mil shares (~$115 mil)
The price ($150 mil) was based on the sale of Vancouver's Cardero Resource (TSX: CDU), whichsold its Pampa de Pongo iron ore deposit (953 million tonnes averaging 44.7% iron and 0.12% copper)for US$100 million in January 2010.Iron ore price has risen by about 70% since January 2010.
Now, how do we know Champion will have 3.5-4 billion tonnes of iron ore mineral resources?
Champion's Fermont property holdings comprise 17 properties, three of which -- Fire Lake North, Bellechasse and Harvey-Tuttle -- currently contain combined National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred mineral resources totalling 1.55 billion tonnes grading 25.4 per cent total iron at a 15-per-cent cut-off. Historical mineral resource estimate of these three properties was only 132 Mt.
The company recently announced positive results from drilling at the Lac Moire project, adjacent to the east of ArcelorMittal's Mont Wright mine property. Based on these highly encouraging results, Champion has increased the total proposed metres of drilling at Lac Moire from 5,000 to 7,000 m.A mineral resource estimate is scheduled for the Lac Moire project in third quarter 2011.
A continuing, fully financed, plus-60,000-metre diamond drilling program is scheduled for nine of Champion's Fermont properties in 2011. A total of nine drills are cranking where 3 drill rigs were secured for the next exploration in O'Keefe –Purdy (next one in the list).
I don’t think Champion will have a problem with proving a minimum of 3.5 billion 43-101 compliant resources by the 2011 year end on 9 of 17 Fermont properties. Fancamp holds 17.5% of interest in all of 17 properties including Black Dan and East Inlet iron.
CLUSTER |
CLAIM BLOCKS |
IRON FORMATION STRIKE LENGTH |
HISTORICAL MINERAL RESOURCES* |
CURRENT NI 43-101 |
CURRENT |
2 |
Fire Lake North |
17 |
41 Mt @ 31% Iron |
388 Mt @ 29% Iron(1) |
PEA, DD:17,500 m |
2 |
Bellechasse |
10 |
91 Mt @ 30% Iron |
215 Mt @ 29% Iron(1) |
DD: 5,000 m |
2 |
Harvey-Tuttle |
38 |
None |
947 Mt @ 23.2% Iron (1) |
MRE pending; DD:12,500 m |
1 |
Moire |
8 (increased drilling from 5,000 to 7,000m, adjacent to the east of ArcelorMittal's Mont Wright mine property) |
101 Mt @ 31% Iron |
n/a (report on 43-101 mineral resources in third quarter 2011) |
DD: 7,000 m |
2 |
O'Keefe -Purdy |
19 (secured three diamond-drill rigs in early July, 2011) |
51 Mt @ 37% Iron |
n/a |
DD: 10,000 m |
3 |
Penguin |
14 |
100 Mt @ 30% Iron |
n/a |
Under Evaluation |
3 |
Silicate-Brutus |
19 |
304 Mt @ 29% Iron |
n/a |
Under Evaluation |
3 |
Aubrey-Ernie |
22 |
30 Mt @ 33% Iron |
n/a |
Under Evaluation |
3 |
Three Big |
2 |
24 Mt @ 33% Iron |
n/a |
Under Evaluation |
3 |
Black Dan |
4.5 |
10Mt @ 30% |
n/a |
Under Evaluation |
|
TOTAL |
153.5 |
620 Mt @ 30.5% Iron |
1,550 Mt @ 24.5% Iron |
|
According to Brazil's Vale (NYSE: VALE) , the world's top iron ore miner, expects prices of the steelmaking raw material to remain above $150 a tone for at least the next five years on tight global supplies, the Financial Times reported on July 7, 2011. Stable iron ore price lets the buyer to mitigate their risk in securing properties and enable their PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment), a necessary stepthat has to be taken prior to making a decision to undertake the heavyinvestment.
Champion’s Fermont properties are ajacent to Cliff Resources’ and ArcelorMittal’s properties. Northern Miner noted “Rumours swirl that Champion Minerals (CHM-T) might become a takeover target for Arcelor Mittal (MT-N), the junior has adopted a shareholder rights plan.”
As I noted earlier, there would be two-staged process on the sale of Fermont properties. I believe Champion’s recent management was restructured to gear the sale of the Fermont properties. You will find out where we are today in two-staged process. Once agreed, signed and sealed it, the details will float to the surface….
Cheers!!